With the prevailing of network communication, high speed routing device is desired. The routing device is, for example, a router or a switch, and includes a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports. In addition, the routing device identifies the output port on the basis of control information that is stored in a header of an input packet, and transfers the packet through the identified output port. As described above, the routing device controls a route of the packet through a network.
With such a high speed operation of the routing device, the power consumption of the routing device increases, and an increase in a temperature of a control circuit that is installed in the routing device is caused. Thus, it is desired to suppress an increase of the power consumption. Among electronic components installed in the routing device, a memory, in particular, produces a large amount of heat. Thus, it is desired to suppress an increase of the power consumption of the memory.
As techniques that suppress an increase of the power consumption, a technique has been proposed that measures and predicts loads for each importance level of the packets using a packet transfer device.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 2009-253481 and 2004-289806 are examples of the related art.